Chad Stahelski Is Back for ‘John Wick 3’

Not that it was ever in any doubt, but Chad Stahelski has officially been confirmed to return to direct John Wick: Chapter 3, the third entry in what has become the most intricately conceived action franchise going on today. Stahelski has been with the series since the beginning, when he and David Leitch first introduced us to John Wick.

Collider has confirmed Stahelski’s return, which is great news, since he and Keanu Reeves (who, obviously, will also be back) and the rest work so well together. While John Wick: Chapter 2 fascinatingly expanded the assassin universe of Wick, it didn’t go too big too fast. Stahelski also noted that he doesn’t want to make the mistake of going bigger for the sequel, instead choosing to focus on the little worldbuilding intricacies that make this series so special.

We want, not so much to go bigger on the third one, but to show you more of the intricacies of the world… I feel like there are all these different subtleties that I skipped over in Number Two, that I’d like to go back to on [chapter three] and show you the inner workings of different parts of New York. So rather than massive set pieces, I’d like to show you cooler and more intricate ones… I think it would be a mistake budget wise and creatively to just go big and blow up a freeway. That’s not our gig. That’s a comic book or a Bond gig. We want to show you cool and intricate details.